Sumeru Equity Partners Acquires MDSL, Combines with Telesoft

PHOENIX, AZ & LONDON, UK JULY 31, 2017 – MDSL, a global leader in Technology Expense Management (“TEM”) solutions, announced that Sumeru Equity Partners (“SEP”) has acquired the company and made a strategic investment in support of the company’s continuing growth, strengthening its position as a global TEM leader.

SEP, which also owns TEM provider Telesoft, has acquired MDSL based on its explosive growth rate, global reach, advanced technology platform, market leading customer service and high quality of employees. SEP will combine its Telesoft investment into MDSL. SEP has owned Telesoft for nearly one year and has experienced strong success in growing the business and scaling operations. The combination of the MDSL and Telesoft organizations will increase scale and global delivery capability while continuing to emphasize the core value of outstanding customer service.

The two companies will be coming together under the MDSL brand. MDSL’s management team will be comprised of Chairman Ben Mendoza, CEO Charles Layne, CTO Simon Mendoza, CFO Tamara Saunders, COO Daman Wood and Chief Architect Thierry Zerbib.

“MDSL has been succeeding in winning world-class enterprise customers. We are surpassing significantly the growth rate of the TEM market, based on our outstanding customer service, advanced software platform and unique global capabilities. We have recognized that our new business growth would soon outpace our organic capabilities,” said MDSL Chairman Ben Mendoza. “We have been seeking a partner that shares our vision for TEM across all of IT spend and prioritizes the importance of guaranteed delivery and exceptional service levels for new and existing customers. We see SEP and Telesoft as ideal partners because of our shared focus on innovation and customer care. As is the case with MDSL, Telesoft has a very loyal customer base and our markets are highly complementary. Having the financial backing of SEP will enable us to continue to delivery consistent and high quality services to our customer base. We will be stronger and even more capable together.”

With the addition of Telesoft, MDSL leads the industry in overall customer satisfaction as well as technology innovation and becomes the global leader in recurring technology expense management software and managed services. The company will operate under a single, global operational model and will offer two distinct software platforms targeted for two separate market segments—one serving global enterprises with a pure SaaS model and the other serving US-based organizations with a hybrid, on-premise license or managed services model. MDSL intends to maintain a commitment to both platforms with a distinct product roadmap that will last over 10 years.

“We strongly believe that this combination is very attractive for the TEM market and remain whole-heartedly committed to maintaining our industry-leading customer-focused approach,” said CEO Charles Layne. “Our sincere expectation from the outset is that this partnership will immediately bring benefits to our customers. We know customers will experience continued, uninterrupted high-quality service as there is no requirement to merge technology platforms or move customers from one platform to another. This combination of two growing, innovative companies represents a joining of forces to create a market leader as opposed to a rescue of one by the other. Our strong alignment of values—bold innovation and investment, acting as One Team, and unparalleled customer execution and transparency—will be demonstrably visible to the market.”

Today, MDSL employs over 350 individuals globally with locations in North America, Europe and Asia. The company serves hundreds of blue-chip enterprise and public sector customers representing billions of dollars of technology, communications / mobility and market data spend.

“Enterprise and public sector customers are spending trillions of dollars on technology and communications products and services annually, and this spend is only trending upward and becoming more complex as more categories emerge such as cloud and Internet of Things services,” said George Kadifa and Sanjeet Mitra, Managing Directors at SEP and MDSL Board Directors. “Collectively, we have been investing for years to ensure that we maintain the highest levels of customer service delivery and offer a set of market-leading, forward-thinking products that address new areas of technology spend. We believe MDSL is well-positioned to provide customers best-in-market solutions for their global technology expense management requirements across spend footprints of all sizes.”

The transaction closed in July 2017 and financial details were not disclosed. Smith & Williamson provided financial advisory services to MDSL, and Mooreland Partners provided financial advisory services to SEP and Telesoft.

“This is certainly a positive for the telecom management industry and for the domestic and global organizations looking for solutions,” commented Tim Lybrook, CEO of telecom management information services company, AOTMP. “Knowing both of these providers and their client bases very well, we are excited to see these two customer service driven companies combine their unique and complementary strengths to become a clear industry leader.”

About MDSL

MDSL is a world leader in Technology Expense Management and related services. MDSL partners with enterprises to provide clarity, control, compliance, and cost savings across their global technology estates. MDSL provides a unified expense management platform encompassing categories such as telecoms, cloud services, the Internet of Things and Financial Market Data. By providing best practice procedures, unparalleled visibility of spend and automating time-consuming processes, MDSL helps ensure global digital transformations are smooth, secure and cost-effective. For more information, visit www.mdsl.com.

About Sumeru Equity Partners

Sumeru Equity Partners (“SEP”) is a technology-focused private equity firm that invests in middle market companies across software, technology-enabled services and hardware. The firm was founded in 2014 by an experienced team from Silver Lake Sumeru, a private equity fund started in 2007 within Silver Lake. SEP utilizes extensive operating and investment experience in partnership with management teams to drive growth and build strategic value. For more information, please visit www.sumeruequity.com.